Tidbits About the Next Gen
by emcaro
Summary: Just a glimpse into the lives of Harry's children and their cousins. Starting with Dominique Weasley, the story includes James Sirius Potter, Lily Potter, Rose Weasley, Victorie Weasley, and more.
1. Dominique Weasley

**Things About the Next Generation:**

**Harry's kids and their cousins are really fascinating me right now. I think it is all that they have to live up to that really catches my interest. This is how I imagine them. I have five completed so far. Review please!**

Dominique Weasley

1. Dominique has only been jealous of her sister once. Generally, she has always hero-worshipped Victorie. They could not be more opposite. Victorie was blonde, bold, and brave. Dominique has always been mousier, shy, and cowardly. But that's okay because she has her big sister to take care of her. Only one time did she stare at Victorie with envy, wishing for her etheral beauty and her reckless bravery. Only once did she wish she were a Gryffindor, strong and brawny rather than the unfailingly average Hufflepuff she was. She only wished for what could never be hers the first time she saw Teddy Lupin wrap his arm around Victorie's shoulders, pressing a kiss to the side of her head ever so briefly.

Only for a moment, she wished it was her own hair that shimmered in the sun, her own eyes that laughed at the world. She wished Teddy Lupin would stare at _her _with that absolute adoration in his ever-changing features.

2. Dominique has never liked her cousin, James. Though only a few years older than herself, she saw something cruel, something wild in him that always frightened her. She stood closer to Victorie when he was around, finding comfort in her nearness. Victorie had always adored James, seeing him as the little brother Louis refused to be.

Dominique was afraid of the wildness in James because sometimes she wished there could be wildness in her own eyes.

3. Dominique has always loved her large family. Something about the sheer size and volume of the Weasley's has always soothed her. Her one and only wish in life is to be the matriarch of her own large family, much to her big sister's disappointment. Victorie always said that taking care of Dominique (seven years younger) and Louis (ten years younger) was enough for her. She never wanted children and was shocked and dismayed when her protege expressed a desire to be a homemaker, the lowest of ambitions in her eyes.

Dominique hated that she cared what her sister thought.

4. Dominique was eleven when she went a little crazy. It was her first flying lesson and she had never been on a broom before. She had always been much too frightened, and Victorie had scoffed at anything to do with Quiddich. Dominique wished so much to be like Victorie that she almost missed the one thing at which she was truly good. While Madam McDonald ran inside with little Alice Longbottom, Jacob Brown, the hotheaded Gryffindor, challenged her to a race. Dominique declined, of course. He asked if she was really Victorie Weasley's younger sister. "Victorie would do it," he had goaded. So of course, Dominique raced.

And she found that she was very good at it.

5. Dominique had always identified most strongly with her Uncle Harry. Perhaps he knew this, because he always took her aside to talk Quiddich when the entire family got together. They shared a true love for the game that neither Albus, nor even James, and especially not Lily, possessed. Harry joked once that Quiddich was the only thing he was good at.

Privately, Dominique felt the same way.

6. When Dominique was thirteen, she caught Teddy staring at her. She flushed and looked away only to find him still staring when she dared a glance in his direction. This time she prayed for some of her sister's boldness and stared back. He smiled and her heart beat faster. Slowly, he made his way toward her. He leaned down to murmur in her ear. "You have chocolate all around your mouth," he had whispered. Dominique has never hated anyone as much as she hated Teddy in that moment.

Except perhaps herself.

7. Dominique was sixteen before she felt Teddy's eyes on her again. It was her birthday and she was, for once, the center of attention. Her long light brown hair was carefully curled by her mother, and her pale skin and freckles did not stand out quite as badly as usual. Her figure, though not long and willowly like her mother's or light and fragile like her sister's, was shone off very nicely in the dress she'd bought just for the occasion. She could not seem to stop smiling as her father, Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron brought out the racing broom bought just for her, not a hand-me-down. She felt glowy from the inside out and Teddy could not help but notice. He stared at her all night, but she never allowed herself to meet his eyes once. She was over him. She was so over him.

Dominique had always been good at lying to herself.

8. Dominique was eighteen when she realized she was not, in fact, over Teddy Lupin. At the same time, she realized that she had no idea what to do with her life. This seemed like a good time to go away for a while, and so she joined her mysterious Uncle Charlie in far-away Romainia. She finally found who she looked were so similar, in all but the hair. They were similar in other ways. Dominique found she adored chasing dragons. She finally found something else she was good at, besides Quiddich. She also found her Uncle Charlie who became her favorite relative. There was something about his calm patience that relaxed Dominique for the first time in her life.

Her worries finally ceased, and she could just live.

9. Dominique had no plans to return home. She stayed in Romainia for six and a half years. It was only when she came home for her Grandad Weasley's funeral that she realized how much she missed it, and decided to stay for a while. She was welcomed by an enormous hug from her big sister, tears from her mother, and a bouquet of yellow roses from none other than Teddy Lupin. Her entire family stared at her in something akin to awe. She realized, belatedly, that perhaps she finally looked pretty to them. Her hair, still not golden, was lightened from the sun. She was still small, but muscled, like an athlete, and her skin was darkly tanned. She realized, with a laugh, that the must think her exotic.

For once, Dominique was the beautiful one.

10. Dominique had no desire to get into any kind of a relationship with her childhood crush. His initial overtures went ignored, though she did press a single yellow rose between old spellbooks, just for nostalgia's sake.

It was, after all, cruely ironic that he should suddenly decide he loved her after she spent years figuring out how to live without him.

11. In the end, it was Uncle Ron, of all people, who convinced Dominique to give Teddy a chance. "They'll always forgive you," he told her with a faraway look in his eye. "You won't always be in her shadow. He loves you for you, and that's something to hold onto." Dominique had never thought of herself in Victorie's shadow, but she had wondered if Teddy was simply settling for second best.

Though she did not exactly understand what Uncle Ron was talking about, or where he was coming from, she did realize that he was right about giving Teddy a chance, regardless.

12. Victorie was Maid of Honor in Dominique's wedding. She tied her hair back into a severe bun, and picked out her own disgusting bride's maid dress. Dominique tried not to be offended at her obvious attempts not upstage the bride, but in the end, she settled for being amused. That was so like her sister, after all.

She also knew that no matter what Victorie wore, Dominique would be the only one Teddy saw.


	2. Victorie Weasley

**OH yeah! I don't own Harry Potter. But I bet you totes thought I did, right?**

**  
Review!**

**Victorie Weasley**

1. When Victorie Weasley was five, her cousin Molly Weasley was born, and she decided to run away from home. Her Uncle Harry found her hiding out in an odd corner of St. Mungo's hospital. He pulled her into his lap and rocked her, and they were silent for a long time as he waited for her to speak, not interrupting her thoughts. She explained, finally that she was positive that the new baby would be more special than she, and that she had no desire to be second best. Harry assured her that she absolutely was not, and would always be first in his eyes. She believed him for a long time.

Until he had his own children.

2. Victorie Weasley has always been inescapably, painfully, gut-wrenchingly jealous of her baby sister. She was jealous of her name and her eyes (so dark and unfathomable) and her ability to blend into every crowd. She despised her own pale blue eyes (so flat) and her long pale hair. She was jealous of her sister's dream to have a big family and of her ability to admit this unashamedly. Victorie couldn't imagine saying that she wanted a big family. It just wasn't done, especially when you were beautiful and talented and had everything to live for.

But most of all, Victorie was jealous every time she watched her sister eat and never worry about the pounds to her waistline. Most of all, she was jealous of her sister's freedom.

3. Victorie Weasley, the first child born after the war, felt a huge burden on her shoulders to be brave and bold and beautiful. Her name meant victory, after all. The daughter of a veela and a war hero, she always felt that she could never measure up. So she was so wild and so reckless and so smart and so beautiful, so full of life that it was almost difficult to bear.

She was contrary by nature, but accomodating in spirit and the contrast sometimes made her miserable.

4. Victorie always felt like the odd man out. Her brother Louis had their father, and her mother had always shown preference for Dominique. No matter how hard Victorie tried to be the best, she still felt overlooked. It was only with her Granny M that she truly felt special, inside and out. Granny M didn't care what she looked like. She didn't care what she could and could not do. She just let her be.

Victorie has never cried so hard as she did at Granny M's funeral.

5. It was her Uncle Percy who one day pulled her aside. "You can't be everything for everyone. Sometimes there will be people who don't like you and one day your sister will not idolize you anymore, and, maybe, you will do things that will make your parents hate you. And you want to know something? That is okay. You are not perfect. And you never will be." Victorie went home that night and ate a chocolate milkshake. She enjoyed every delicious bite.

She did not even throw it up afterward.

6. The first time Teddy tried to kiss her, Victorie giggled. Victorie was not much of a giggler so this was altogether most shocking. Teddy had looked offended and refused to speak to her for a weak until she pulled him aside and snogged in in the dark corner of a corridor. He'd just caught her off guard, that was all.

Still, as he pressed his lips to hers, she'd been troubled.

7. Victorie never wanted to end up with Teddy for many reasons. Though he was lovely and probably perfect, and witty and intelligent, he had driven her absolutely batshit from the very beginning. His witty barbs became aggravating and his obsession with muggle cartoons, much less endearing. The most important reason, however, was the way she saw her baby sister staring at him.

No boy was worth breaking Dominique's heart.

8. Victorie, the golden girl, the daughter of revolution, the beautiful one never without a date for Hogsmeade, graduated Hogwarts without a job or a boyfriend. She did not leave the country like her sister eventually would, but she did flounder, living with her constantly stoned best friend, Steven Brown, for a few months, until her baby brother, Louis dropped by to inform her that she was an idiot who was breaking their mum's heart. She found a job that very week.

She'd always hated to disappoint her mum.

9. Victorie never wanted to be a Curse Breaker. She only did so because her father could get her into the program. She only remained one because her father would be so disappointed that she didn't follow in his footsteps. Every day was torturous for Victorie, who'd actually never had any desire to stray so far from home.

Her stomach ached and the lump in her throat seemed to take up permanent residence.

10. The death of Victorie's youngest cousin snapped her out of her aimless monotony. Life was too short, she decided, to be stuck in a job she despised, far away from everyone she loved. She moved home and in with her baby brother and never regretted it once. She took a job as her Uncle Harry's secretary.

Secretly, she rejoiced in the fact that entire Auror Department would fall apart if she missed a day of work.

11. When Victorie was thirty-four, she met her Fifth Year sweetheart, Jacob Wood in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes: Hogsmeade Premesis. He was still burly and not nearly so handsome as he once was, but then, she was also much less beautiful. In fact, she almost looked... normal. She was, after all, only one-eighth veela. She was slow to get into any kind of relationship with Wood, hesitant to jump in with both feet. But at the same time, she'd forgotten how very comfortable she was with Jacob. He was so simple, never playing mind games or judging her. Finally she realized that she no longer had to worry about a man only loving her appearance.

It was her most freeing revelation since her decision to come home.

12. It was a long time coming, but in the midst of Victorie's pregnancy, she finally stopped caring about what everyone thought of her. She had a husband, whom she loved, not with the frantic madness of her cousin Lily, nor with the passion of her sister, but with tender certainity that gave Victorie the security she'd always craved. She had a job she adored, regardless of anyone's found she didn't need the approval of strangers, or even the approval of her family. And when her baby girl was born, she named her Jessica, simply because she'd never known a Jessica, and because the name meant nothing to her.

She'd let her daughter carve out her own identity.


	3. Lily Luna Potter

**Still own nothing. Except a couple of OCs thrown in. But they were all inspired by Harry Potter. So, yeah, I own nothing.**

**Review!**

**Lily Luna Potter**

1. Lily, ever since she was a little girl, was known as the beautiful, invincible little Potter princess. The apple of her daddy's eye, she could get away with murder. She was, rather, closer to James than she was to Albus growing up, and she cried for days when he went away to school. James treated Lily with the same casual disdain with which he treated everyone, but Lily didn't care. Not at first. Eventually, she grew tired of his treatment of her, and left him behind. He realized, too late, that he no longer held Lily's particular regard and attempted to repair the relationship, but it was too late. Lily would no longer give him the time of day.

She could hold a grudge like her Uncle Percy.

2. Lily was absolute rubbish at Quiddich. She was built like her father, small and skinny, and everyone expected her to follow in his footsteps as a Seeker. Lily liked to say it was her brothers' fault for never letting her use the family broom to practice. James liked to say it Lily's fault for having the shittiest sense of balance in the history of the Potter name. When Lily was eleven, she became fed up with her friends' Quiddich obsessions and set the Hogwarts Quiddich field on fire. She was very nearly expelled and it was only Harry making a special trip to school to do some intense name-dropping that kept her from being on the first train back to Godric's Hollow. The Potter princess couldn't be expelled.

She was invincible.

3. The first time Lily ever made a boy cry, just for the hell of it, she smirked around at her laughing friends in the Common Room, but that night, alone in her dormitory she sobbed. She had broken the boy's heart, but, though she hadn't even liked the him very much, somehow she had broken her own heart a thousand times worse.

4. At a glance, everyone gushed about how she resembled her mother so, and how she was obviously Ginny's daughter. Lily had never seen much a resemblance between herself and her mother, other than, perhaps, they both had strong personalities. Her mother was bold and brazen. Lily was rather typical of Slytherin House, manipulative and proud. Her eyes were a greenish hazel, not at all her mother's honey-brown, and her features were small and fragile, instead of the wide-eyed, full-lipped, bold beauty that her mother boasted. Sometimes, she caught her father staring at her, as though she were someone he had known long ago. Lily didn't understand his scrutiny.

She couldn't understand, either, why Professor Slughorn still got misty eyed when she walked in a room, even after seven years in his House.

5. Lily loved her hair. It was long and yellow, like a just-peeled banana, and it was her favorite feature. She loved her freckle free cheeks and her hazel eyes that changed color with whatever shirt she was wearing. But at the same time, Lily hated being the odd man out. She was the lone towhead in a sea of gingers and sometimes she found herself staring at her cousin Rose's vivid, Weasley-red, locks with the strangest feeling in the pit of her stomach.

It might have been jealousy.

6. Lily always knew exactly what she would do when she graduated. She would become an auror, just like her father. It was not out of any hero-worship for who had dad was, but rather, out of an honest adoration for kicking ass. She joined the trainee program just out of Hogwarts and was the only person from her class at Hogwarts to make it through; at least twelve dropped out. For the first time, her accomplishment was all of her own merit. She made it through simply because she was the best, not because of who her father was. When she was given her badge, Harry wrapped an arm around his little girl and told her he was proud of her. Lily tried her best not to care, after all, that wasn't why she had done it at all, but at the same time, she felt traitorous tears pricking her eyes.

7. His name was Jack Reeves. He was muggleborn, no relation to the Potter's or the Weasley's. He was intense and frightening, tall and intimidating. His hair and eyes were as dark as Lily's were fair. He was the coordinator of the Auror Trainee program and Lily beat him in a mock duel in front of the entire class of recruits. Lily fell in love slowly, but completely and when he finally asked her to dinner, after their roles as mentor and student were finished and she was a full-fledged auror, she kissed him full on the mouth.

She was pleasantly surprised when he kissed her back.

8. Their's was a relationship born of tense circumstances. They were constantly running into dangerous circumstances, regardless of consequences. They were young. They were reckless. They were invincible.

And they were fools.

9. Harry immediately brought Jack into the Potter/Weasley fold. It never crossed his mind to be angry when they announced their engagement. Instead, he was nearly as excited as Lily, and he baffled every father in the vicinity when he embraced Jack like a father would a son. Harry was mostly excited because he wanted to retire eventually and Jack was the most promising replacement he'd found.

Having him in the family would just make him easier to control.

10. It was a small wedding on All Hallow's Eve, the forty-fifth anniversary of the death of Harry's parents. Jack's partner, Scorpius Malfoy was his best man, and Lily shocked everyone by asking Louis Weasley to be her maid of honor.

She'd never been conventional.

11. It was supposed to be easy. Get in, get out. Naturally, it didn't really go down that way. The Rabastan Lestrange had escaped from Azkaban. He was hiding out in an abandoned muggle warehouse. It was supposed to be so simple. Lily and Jack had done countless missions like it. Lily was killed when the building collapsed around her, and Jack was killed in a suicidal rescue mission. She was twenty years old. Jack was twenty-seven. Harry made it to the scene just in time to see the building go up in flames. Lily and Jack's funeral was joint, just as they would have wished, and most of the attendees could hardly cry for their shock. Lily was, after all, the little Potter princess, strong and invincible. Her story had been covered by The Daily Prophet, as wizards all over the country mourned the death of the daughter of the Boy Who Lived.

Lily wasn't made to live very long.

12. When Lily first saw her father's mother, she didn't feel so sad about losing her family temporarily. She finally realized why her father teared up sometimes upon looking at her. She grabbed Jack's hands, and tugged him to what was no longer Unknown, ready to face death just as they had faced life: head on. They were invincible, after all.

**Yeah, I didn't think all of Ginny and Harry's kids could make it to old age. Not if they were anything like their parents anyway. But still, Lily was probably my favorite character. So this one was really hard for me. I've been thinking about expanding her story into a multi-chapter fic, mostly taking place during her Auror training and her life with Jack. Let me know what you think.**


	4. James Sirius Potter

**Still own nothing. Except a couple of OCs thrown in. But they were all inspired by Harry Potter. So, yeah, I own nothing.**

**Review!**

**James Sirius Potter**

1. James harbored a deep, unshakable disdain for muggles, and never tried to hide this. He did not care that his grandfather had worked all his life for muggle-wizard relations, did not care that his Aunt Hermione was muggleborn, did not even care that his own cousins were muggles. He deeply mistrusted them, and felt that, being of magical birth, he was something much better, more special, than his boring, average, muggle cousins.

James considered his father's compassion for muggles, even after his treatment at their hands, to be a reprehensible failing.

2. James hated being the son of the Boy Who Lived. He hated the Prophet reporters who followed his family around and the autograph seekers who made it so they could not even have an ice cream without someone barging in.

Most of all, he hated having to share his dad with the world.

3. James Sirius was an arrogant bastard. And he liked it that way. He had good reason to be, after all. He was top of his class and a Quiddich star. He'd known the secret passages out of the school since he was eleven, and he provided the firewhisky for every Gryffindor party. Every student at Hogwarts considered him and his best friend Chuck Knott to be the height of cool, and they never apologized for anything.

They couldn't help but love the attention.

4. James was not a bad person. He had many faults and sometimes his faults seemed to outweigh his good qualities, but he did have them. He embodied everything a Gryffindor should. He was brave and loyal, strong, and courageous. He gave his best friend a place to stay when his parents died, and he had no desire to live with his possibly insane Uncle Theodore. He took his baby brother under his wing, practicing with him every night, when he made the Quiddich team and didn't think himself capable of living up to his brother's reputation.

Of course, he never told anyone.

5. James was fourteen when he fell in love. He was willing to overlook her unfortunate parentage and her annoyingly defiant streak. He was willing to overlook the freckles dusting her pale skin, and her slightly crooked nose. He did prefer she not wear her glasses, but he was willing to overlook that too. Her name was Delia Delaney and she was Irish. She was also the prettiest thing he'd ever seen. Her eyes were the color of the sky on a clear day, and her hair was thick and black. She was also unfailingly sweet, kind to everyone at the school even tutoring her fellow Hufflepuffs in Potions, her best subject. James thought she was like an angel and he took to following her around, expecting her attention. When she refused to give it to him, he grew confused and eventually, angry. He continued to follow her around, intent on persuading her to go out within him. She continued to refuse him, much to the amusement of the rest of the school.

She never figured out that he actually loved her.

6. While James never understood Delia's disgust, Lily did. She sympathized with the poor girl her brother was stalking and understood completely why Delia could never date a boy who made no secret about the fact that he despised her heritage. Lily may have been many things, but she was never prejudiced, regardless of her house. She couldn't understand her brother's blind hatred.

Neither could Delia.

7. James was twenty-three when he lost his baby sister for good, but what he did not realize was that he'd lost her long before her death. Her premature demise shook James to the core. He was at the height of his game as a successful professional Quiddich player, but he soon started drinking heavily. He was found, passed out, behind the Leaky Cauldron, and taken to St. Mungo's, where a certain Healer immediately recognized him.

James woke to eyes, the color of a clear sky, filling his vision.

8. Delia was worried about James. He did not laugh anymore, ever. She missed the way his white teeth flashed in that irritating smirk of his. She didn't particularly like him, but she didn't hate him either. Delia always was too nice for her own good. She drove him back to his flat in, irony of all ironies, muggle London, and stayed with him until he'd slept it off. She picked up his devestation of an apartment, and bought him enough groceries to fill his empty cupboards. She planned to leave him after that, let him take it from there, but something stopped her. She waited for him to wake up.

To this day, the look on his face when he saw her in his mess of an apartment, staring down at his worthless, beaten down self, still haunts her.

9. James did not change overnight. But for some reason, Delia refused to give up on him. Seeing him at his lowest point did something to her. James, who had never completely fallen out of love with her, saw her as an angel. And she was. She was James' angel. She was also his phone call when he had to be bailed out of jail for drinking and driving. She was the one who held him while he cried on the first anniversary of Lily's death. She was the one who hid the liquor bottles when she felt him slipping backwards.

She was his best friend.

10. James proposed fourteen times before she finally said yes. Thirteen of those times, James was intoxicated at the time, and Delia just laughed at him. The fourteenth time, however, James was absolutely and completely sobor.

This time, Delia cried instead.

11. Their wedding was quiet and small. The Potter/Weasley clan still didn't feel up to an elaborate party, even a year and a half after the death of their youngest. Delia wore a simple white sheath. Chuck was James' best man. Delia's baby sister was her maid of honor. Sondheim stood up to give the best man speech and mentioned the guest who should have been there, laughing at the solemn mood.

There was not a dry eye in the room when he sat down, and James laughed a little at the idea of his dead sister upstaging his wedding.

12. Two years after they were married Delia had a daughter, whom they named Lily in the grand tradition of naming children after dead friends, knowing all the while that Lily would have scoffed at the very sappy idea of it.

Lily was her daddy's princess, but he made sure to explain to her from a young age that she was never invincible.


	5. Rose Weasley

**Still own nothing. Except a couple of OCs thrown in. But they were all inspired by Harry Potter. So, yeah, I own nothing.**

**Review!**

**Rose Weasley**

1. When Rose was eight and a half years old, she decided that she wanted to marry her cousin Albus. She didn't see any sort of problem with this and neither did he. The exchanged ring pops as a symbol of their everlasting love, and pledged to never let James lock the other in the broom shed if they could help it. She didn't understand her parents' laughter when she went home and informed her parents that she was married and would be moving in with Potters' now, thankyouverymuch. Albus was, after all, the very best boy she knew. He didn't put frogs in girls' pockets, or set broomsheds on fire. He was calm and steady. He remained the best boy Rose knew, all through their school years.

2. Rose Weasely hated her nickname: Rosie. Who liked the name Rosie? Rosie was adorable and delicate and sweet. Unfortunately, Rosie didn't have much of a choice in the matter. See, Rosie was tiny. She was delicate and she was sweet. Her reddish brown hair and huge blue eyes brought to mind a fairytale princess. No one was really surprised when she was sorted into Hufflepuff. It was, after all, the House for beautiful girls without a lot going on upstairs.

3. Rosie knew she disappointed her mother. Hermione Weasley was a war hero. She was a strong, courageous woman who stood up in the face of adversity. Rosie tended to cower in the face of adversity and let her brother and cousins take care of her. Her mother knew magical law inside and got ahead in life using her brains and clever manipulations of the system. Rosie just had to bat her impossibly long eyelashes and everyone jumped to her beck and call. Rosie sometimes wondered if her mother envied her, just a bit, envied her beauty, the ease in which life catered to her. Rosie Weasley would never have to work for anything. And she quite liked it that way.

4. Rose Weasley was in love with being in love. She'd been in love more times than she could count. Scorpius Malfoy in Third Year, Damion Smith in Fourth Year, Roux Greengrass in Fifth Year, Winston MacMillion in Sixth Year (Rose wasn't quite sure what she had been thinking with that one), and Landon Finch-Fletchley _and _Mario McKinnon in Sevent Year (at the same time). Rose loved romance novels, and that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you talk to the boy who might just become your whole world. Rose had never been baffled by love, on the contrary, she was baffled when she was not one half of a couple.

5. Chuck Knott was in love with Rosie. But Rosie did not even consider Chuck a viable option. He had inky black hair and cold, frightening eyes. She tended to stammar whenever he was near and disliked the way her stomach jolted when he touched the small of her back. James begged her to give him a chance, but she much preferred safe boys, nice boys. Boys who she didn't worry might snap and curse the entire school into oblivion. Most of all, she liked boys who needed her. Chuck Knott made no secret about the fact that he could take care of himself.

6. Rosie was a libra. She adored beautiful things and beautiful people. It wasn't so much that Rosie was shallow, just that she preferred the finer things in life. Most of all, Rosie loved art. She liked the way a moment in time could be made more beautiful, manipulating true events, making grass, greener; Blue Birds, bluer; and people, lovelier. Out of school, she took a job in portrait restoration. She loved how she could have conversations with her subjects as she made them beautiful again, and many of her best friends were dead.

7. Rose's father had begged her to become an auror. He knew he didn't have a chance of convincing Hugo, but he thought, perhaps, Rose would do it if he asked obnoxiously enough. It didn't work. Rose fancied herself a bit of a coward. She'd never attempted anything dangerous in her life and would like to keep it that way, thank you very much. In fact, Rose had never thought much about her future. She knew she would like to get married, mostly because she knew already exactly what kind of wedding she wanted. She knew exactly what she wanted the groom to be like too, right down to the color hair (blonde) and the last name (Prince or some variation). Perhaps that is why Chuck Knott was such a surprise.

8. Rosie always adored her brave, brazen little cousin, Lily from afar. She was a bit frightened of her wildness, of her courage, and of her pride. In fact, Rosie was a little afraid of all the Potters, save Albus. Rosie and Albus had always gotten on well. Rosie liked the security she felt when Albus was around and Albus liked the serenity that seemed to leak from Rosie's very pores. It was not unusual for the two to spend hours in each other's company without saying a word.

9. The only person who ever inspired bravery and strength in Rosie was Hugo. Small and wiry, Hugo was a ball of boundless energy. He had a striking naivete that made his entire family close ranks around him. He tended to say the wrong things, not realizing how they were wrong, inciting laughter. This laughter confused Hugo who could not read sarcasm. He didn't understand when people made fun of him. James Potter made it very clear from the get-go that Hugo was his cousin and anyone wishing to fuck with him would answer to him. Rosie and Albus took to walking Hugo to class making a barrier around him. Lily dueled countless students whose responses to something Hugo said had set her off. Their other cousins participated as well, and Hugo made it through Hogwarts entirely unscathed. He retained that adorable naivete and earnest sense of humor that made everyone around him melt. Rosie never felt as strongly about anything as she did about protecting Hugo.

10. When Rosie was nineteen and Hugo was seventeen, Hugo came to London to spend the weekend with her. They played in muggle London on Saturday, but on Sunday, they decided to explore Diagon Alley. They had never been to any of the interesting parts, they reckoned, with their parents. They wore hats and baggy clothes to avoid recognition ( The Prophet always had a grand old time following around the Potter children and Rose and Hugo) and entered the Alley through the Leaky Cauldron as they had so many times before. They paused at Olivander's, mostly out of polite obligation, to have a chat with him for a few moments. Behind them, they heard a loud explosion. Without thinking, Rosie jumped on top of Hugo, tackling him to the ground. She grabbed his hand and they rolled into the dark alley between Olivander's and Fortescue's. Rose placed her small hand over Hugo's mouth, praying he wouldn't make any noice. She didn't dare breathe. Suddenly, she felt herself be lifted up to her feat. Gasping, she was whirled around, roughly. She looked up into the gaunt face of Rabastan Lastrange, newly escaped from Azkaban. He leered, and she tried to scream but no sound escaped her lips. Hugo charged at Lestrange and was knocked to the ground. Suddenly Chuck was there, and though she's never told anyone this, for a moment, she thought he was there to help Lastrange kill them. He cursed Lastrange, grabbed her brother and then her, and apparated away.

Rose couldn't be pried off his arm, not even when they reached the hospital.

11. Chuck became the protector she'd always wanted. Instead of a handsome prince, she gotten a bodyguard, and, somehow, she didn't feel cheated.

He was everything she would have wanted had she known herself well enough to request it.

12. When her daddy took her arm to give her away, he smoothed her reddish hair back from her face, and asked her, in a hushed whisper, if she was absolutely sure she wanted to do this. She nodded and he stared in her eyes for a long time.

He most have found something there to give him comfort because he suddenly smiled his great, beaming smile and took her arm, voicing no further objections.

**George and Angelina's daughter, Roxanne is next!**


	6. Roxanne Weasley

1. No one can hurt you unless you give them permission. Eleanor Roosevelt said something to that effect. Roxanne sometimes feel as though her entire life is about giving people permission to hurt her. She wonders if life in general is about hurting and if there is ever any good to close relationships.

Roxanne always fancied herself the philosopher of the Weasley family.

2. Roxanne can't believe her parents sometimes. She can't believe that they could ever settle for what they settled for. Each of them pray that they'll see another's eyes looking out from each other's. Roxanne sat her Uncle Harry down one day and forced him to tell her the story. He couldn't say know. He understood Roxanne's need for information and he understood that while it was cruel to tell her, it would be so much more so to deny her the truth.

Uncle Harry never forgot what it was like to be young.

3. Roxanne hated her house. It was big and souless and so quiet. It was as though everyone was waiting, holding their breath, waiting for someone to return home. Roxanne watched the anticipation slow drive her father and brother mad. But Roxanne's mother seemed to enjoy it.

Maybe she was a little mad to begin with.

4. Roxanne was twelve when her mother killed herself. She didn't leave a note. A note wasn't necessary. Everyone knew why she did it. She never could get over Roxanne's uncle. She married his twin and occasionally called him Fred to his face with an absolute blank serenity on her face that made Roxanne wonder if she had any idea who she was talking to.

Roxanne watched her mother's fits of madness with no small amount of wariness, but George seemed to take every episode as a physical blow. One can only take so many beatings.

5. Remarkably, Roxanne never hated her mother. She never hated her brother, who took after their mother, running away from home at fourteen, leaving Roxanne to brave the silence alone. She never even hated her father who once went 67 days of sharing the same space without ever speaking a word to her.

She hated her Uncle Fred, whom she could not have ever met, and who left her with barely a shell of a family.

6. Roxanne never came home after graduating from Hogwarts. Why should she? Sometimes she wondered if her father even remembered her anymore. There was no laughter, no love, and no life. Roxanne needed laughter. She needed love. She needed life in order to thrive. Roxanne moved into a small flat in muggle London, not five minutes from her cousin James. The two became closer friends than she ever would have expected and actually attended a few family dinners. She did not miss the tragic looks that her Uncles and Aunts gave her. She did not miss the still empty seats where Fred and George should have sat.

One dead, one as good as dead, leaving their daughter and niece nothing but a pair of empty seats.

7. Roxanne did not look a thing like her Uncle Fred. That's why it came as such a shock when she visited her father on his 56th birthday and he did not know her. He called her Fred. Fred had been pale and freckly and red-haired. Roxanne's skin was the color of a vanilla latte and her hair was thick and curly and black. She looked nothing like her Uncle Fred, but she took one look at her father's blank, blue eyes, the precise color and shape of her own, and left without a word.

Her own insanities were all she could handle at the moment.

8. Roxanne did not want a family. She vowed never to marry and never to love. People who loved ruined each other's lives, not out of any choice of their own. They simply could not help themselves. Roxanne would not ever ruin another's life, like she watched her father ruin her mother's and vice versa.

She didn't consider the fact that she might have to save someone whose life was already ruined.

9. Dean Thomas' life was ruined. He'd fought in the first war; he was considerably older than Roxanne, old enough to be her father, in fact. But he needed Roxanne just as much as Roxanne needed him. Dean's wife and daughter had been lovely, with dark hair and skin and light, light eyes. But Dean was not using her; Roxanne knew this for certain. Roxanne knew what that looked like and she'd vowed to never let it happen to her.

She forgot that sometimes these things just happen.

10. Dean loved Roxanne. Roxanne loved Dean. But the shadow of death loomed far over their heads in a war that just wouldn't end. It was Freddy who finally snapped Roxanne out of her madness. For the first time, Roxanne fell into the family tradition.

She finally ran away.

11. Roxanne moved in with her older brother after her divorce was finalized. She finally let herself cry for Freddy and for Dean and for Angelina and for George and even for Fred. But most of all, Roxanne cried for herself. Freddy did all he could for while she attempted to put herself back together again. But he realized that she was a jigsaw puzzle. Some pieces had been lost and some pieces would never be found again. How do you comfort someone when they are so emphatically broken?

Freddy went out and bought his sister a puppy that afternoon.

12. Roxanne never married again. She named her puppy, Hedwig, after the hero of of the Second War, Uncle Harry's faithful companion. She promptly changed his name to Davie. For no other reason than she couldn't handle another relationship in the shadow of a war long finished. War left it's scars on everyone, from the oldest to the youngest. Roxanne contented herself with being the best aunt she could possibly be, the best dog-mommy, and the best curse-breaker since her uncle Bill.

And she was happy.

**To be honest, I think Roxanne's is the saddest story yet, including Lily's. But she made the best of it, I suppose. Her and Dean's story was not supposed to turn out like that. But oh well. Review, pretty pretty please :) :) Tell me who you want to hear from next. I can't decide.**


	7. Molly Weasley

**Sorry Roxanne's story was so sad. I got some negative feedback for that. I just really think that war leaves scars, you know? And these are the kind of scars that don't just go away because the bad guy was vanquished and the victory champagne was poured.**

**This is Molly's story. I really, really like her. :) Please review!! I really love to read feedback.**

1. Molly Weasley tried her first cigarette behind the Herbology sheds when she was twelve. She did it on a dare from Scorpius Malfoy and nearly hacked up a lung.

The second one was easier.

2. Molly Weasley was about as typical Weasley in appearance as one could possibly be. Her hair was the abrupt fire-engine shade that made people at the Supermarket stop and glare, as though she disturbed the peace simply by existing. Her eyes were big and brown and doey with a sparkle of mischief lying just beyond the surface and her cheeks were connect-the-dot speckled. Molly Weasley began dying her hair when she was eleven years old and never really stopped. She chose jet-black as it was as far way from her natural colour as possible. She wore much too much makeup in order to disguise her freckles.

There was not much she could do about her eyes. Sure there were plenty of dodgy spells she could try, but she never could shake Grandma Molly's warning that she'd go blind.

3. Scorpius Malfoy was the cheese to Molly's macaroni, the second pea in a lonely pod, the hip to potomous. Both sorted into Hufflepuff (the unsung House, dontcha know) and, in doing so, basically telling the Weasley Clan and the folks up at Malfoy Manor to 'stick it where the sun don't shine, beeyotch,' they seemed made for each other in every way. It's sort of ironic that their anti-everyone and everything friendship was what really warmed Malfoy-Weasley relationships.

It's hard not to feel some sort of camaraderie when you are bailing your sixteen-year-old son/daughter out of muggle jail for lewd and lascivious conduct.

4. Deep down, through many layers of obnoxiously angsty poetry, ripped jeans and Doc Marten boots, Molly loved her family. She loved her crazy Uncle Ron, her abrasive Aunt Hermione, her lovely Aunt Fleur, her badass Uncle Harry, and even her possibly criminally insane cousin Lily. Perhaps especially her possibly criminally insane baby cousin Lily. Lily was a constant source of amusement for Molly and probably the only reason she allowed herself to be dragged, kicking and screaming of course, to Sunday dinners at Grandma Molly's.

But she was the only one who wasn't surprised at Lily's death.

5. Molly catologues her school years and major life events into hair colors. Her hair was black when she smoked her first cigarette. It was canary yellow when she passed Third Year Transfiguration, one of Molly's (and McGonagall's) proudest moments. It was blue the first time she kissed Scorpius, (It was mid-winter, Fifth Year, behind the Quiddich stands. Snow was falling and it was as conventionally perfect a moment as any fairytale princess' first kiss) and black again the first time he broke her heart. It was purple the summer she got her first job (A gig waitressing at a fast paced restaurant that lasted the longest two months of her life) and green and silver when she attended Lily's funeral.

It was red the day her father died.

6. Molly's father was a pompous ass, but he never really pretended to be anything else, so you can't really argue the point. Molly learned many things from her daddy. For one, Gryffindor was the only House worth anything. For another, the Malfoys were up to no good and should not be trusted as far as you could throw 'em.

Molly always was a poor study.

7. Molly loved her foolish father, but she never quite looked at him the same after hearing the story of his betrayal. Scorpius finally told her, for it was a taboo subject around the Weasley homes. Unable to believe the words coming from her best friends lips (lips that had been more happily occupied not minutes before), Molly had left Malfoy Manor and gone directly to her Aunt Ginny's house to be told the truth.

Aunt Ginny was good in a crisis, but even she didn't know quite what to do with this pale, freckled, shivering child with the black hair and the chip on her shoulder, whose world had just been utterly rocked.

8. Molly always had a soft spot for her baby sister Lucy, but Lucy probably never knew it. She was impatient with her and easily annoyed. She pretended Lucy's naïveté and innocence were something bad, something to be mocked, all while fiercely protecting them from others. She wiggled out of hugs and glared for no particular reason. She found fault in each of Lucy's boyfriends and argued with her endlessly.

But on the day of their father's funeral Molly allowed her sister to lean on her, showing affection in the only way she knew how.

9. After all the firsts they'd had together, it was only natural that they should be each other's Firsts. It was awkward and painful and they laughed most of the way through, but it was the best first time Molly could have hoped for. After it was over, Scorpius fell asleep and Molly laid awake a long time, listening, half hoping her parents would come home and find her in the arms of the enemy.

They never did.

10. Molly married Scorpius shortly after finding out she was pregnant in the first and last conventional moment of her life. Molly was seventeen and she graduated Hogwarts seven months pregnant, without honors, without job prospects, and without a care in the world. She and Scorpius moved into a little cottage in Hogsmeade, paid for by the death of one of Scorpius' rich relatives. They were dirt broke (the money inherited did not last long) and neither of them had any inclination to get a job, but for a little while, they were unbelievably, wispily, quirkily happy. After Iris was born, things changed for Molly. She stared at her tiny daughter with her perfect eyes and her perfect mouth and her perfect tiny little nose and began to fret. She couldn't pay for doctor's visits or food or baby clothes or blankets. Snow was beginning to fall again and the fairy tale cottage and instead of thinking it magical, Molly wondered how she was going to keep the baby warm.

Scorpius continued to get stoned, day after day, pretending they were still in school and wondering when his wife had turned into such a nag.

11. Molly and her mother, Audrey, had never ever gotten on well. Even when she was a little girl, she seemed to skip the stage where all a child wants is her mommy and moved directly on to the let's see if Barbies melt in the microwave stage. She was a witch, after all, and her mother was nothing but a muggle. She could do magic and what could Audrey do? But when the snow piled up on the front stoop and the baby wouldn't stop crying and Scorpius refused to get out of bed, and there was no food to be made into breakfast and Molly's hair was only half purple, Molly could only make one phone call.

Her mother came over directly, with bags of groceries, and Lucy's hand-me-down baby clothes and the kind of comfortable stability that only a mother can provide.

12. Scorpius was her best friend, the father of her child, and, for all intents and purposes, her soulmate, but Molly was only seventeen. She was seventeen and she'd recently graduated from the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world with fairly decent marks. She had a three month old daughter and she had her entire life ahead of her. So, Molly didn't feel guilty as she packed up her and Iris' few belongings and made her way over to her mother's house where she was to stay for a few months in order to get back on her feet. She didn't feel guilty and she didn't feel sad. Well, maybe she felt a little sad, but mostly she felt excited. She could be anything, do anything. She was a Weasley, for goodness sake.

Maybe one day, Scorpius would catch up with her, but till then, she was just fine where she was.


	8. Fred Ramon Weasley

**This is for Cadee29, because she was right. I still think Roxanne's story is the right one for her, but I feel I've redeemed my morbid self with Fred's :) :) **

**Hope everyone enjoys!  
**

**Anything you recognize is not mine.**

1. For as long as Freddy Weasley can remember, he, like so many of his fellow children of the war, has been haunted by ghosts. He looks around him at this new generation of children and young adults who have never had to fight for freedom and he pities them just like he pities himself. Because, in a way, they have had to fight for freedom. The freedom to exist and simply be, without the weight of a fallen hero resting on the frail and green shoulders. They've had to fight for the own sanity like no other generation before.

He wonders if this is not the most terrible fight at all, for it is a silent one and a deathly one.

2. Perhaps it is to be expected, but Freddy immensely dislikes his name. Fred Weasley was brave and strong and funny. Well, Freddy is brave and strong for certain, but he is not, nor has he ever been, funny. Instead, he is steady, like a big, immovable, unshakable, rock.

His middle name is Ramon and that is what he calls himself.

3. Ramon and his sister, Roxanne, greatly resemble one another. They have similar stony expressions, cool eyes and dark skin and hair from their mother's Cuban/Haitian heritage. Ramon's skin is slightly darker and his eyes are green, rather blue, but it is easy to tell they are siblings. Sometimes, Ramon wonders if Roxanne is as stable as she likes to pretend.

For sometimes, he stares into her flat, blue eyes and sees no one staring back at him. That scares him, and he doesn't do scared well.

4. Ramon has been on his own since he was fourteen, a mere baby, really. His mother killed herself a year after he left. In a distant sort of way, he's always blamed himself. He moved in with his uncle, Jeremiah, his mother's oldest brother. Jeremiah lived in London and operated a security company and worked there during the summers. It was nice, living with Jeremiah. Simple and easy as the two were similar in their mutual love of silence. Ramon has always preferred to listen.

He's a man of few words, but his ears are always wide open.

5. Ramon was an undeniably successful man. At thirty-two, he was running a top-notch security company. Buying and taking his uncle's business to new levels, he provided magical security and other services to a select clientele with bases in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Bangkok, Milan, and Miami. He was considered wealthy by most standards and well off by all. He was undeniably attractive as well with long, relaxed black hair that he usually wore in a ponytail, skin like a mocha latte and the best body this side of the Thames. He was not happy, per se, but he wouldn't consider himself unhappy by any stretch of the imagination.

Ramon Weasley knew unhappy. He'd lived unhappy. He was not unhappy.

6. Roxanne lived with him for 3 months. That was all either of them could take. He didn't do emotions, he barely did familial relationships and he most certainly didn't do houseguests. Still, his younger sister's marriage was over and she needed a place to go.

Ramon was a protector, through and through, and besides, he owed her for leaving home without her all those years ago.

7. It's been established that Ramon was not unhappy, but he wasn't happy either. He lived day to day, in a strict routine. The body was a temple so he never ate anything fried or sugary. He stuck to a workout routine in order to stay on top of his game 24/7, vitally important in his line of work. He'd seen the price paid for anything less than constant vigilance and he didn't think he could afford it. Still, he was alone and though he'd never admit it, the loneliness, the thought of being alone forever, the fear of having nothing but empty seats at his funeral, threatened to crush him.

He wasn't ever afraid enough to act on those feelings, though countless women came and went from his bedroom.

8. She was about as unsuccessful as a person can be. She was twenty-five and broke in the worst way. She had an eviction notice from her landlord, a pink slip from her boss, no money in her Gringotts account and naught but lackluster grades on her NEWTs to fall back on. He felt sorry for her and overlooked her lack of references, experience, and more than likely, common sense, offering her a job, running searches and chasing after bad guys, privately commissioned by clients. She wasn't very good at it, but he was too busy laughing to fire her.

Fred Ramon Weasley didn't place high stock value in entertainment, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd enjoyed himself so much.

9. Not conventionally beautiful, with darkly tanned skin, dark blonde hair and gold eyes, Ramon could probably do much better than Gemma Summers. She was a mess, her hair was always in disarray, her paperwork was never complete, she was nearly as emotionally stunted as he was, courtesy of her quickie divorce from her Hogwarts sweetheart. She'd come home from work one day to find him on the dining room table with her best friend. His family life was nonexistence, she was an orphan, who grew up in and out of both foster and group homes, but somehow, through a series of strange misadventures, they managed to adopt each other and fall in love in the process. She was fun and carefree, wearing her heart on her sleeve even after all she'd been through; he was an emotionless vault, with a hard clamp on the box that contained his heart.

Somehow, they understood each other more than anyone else ever could.

10. Sometimes Ramon feels that all he does is save her, but that's fine by him. He manages to remain emotionally distant from everyone and everything in his life, but for some reason, she infiltrates his very being and the idea of a life without her makes him feel physically weak. RamonR hates feeling weak. His father was weak, his mother was weak, even his baby sister was weak. But Ramon knows that if anything ever happened to this slip of a girl who's managed to slide her way under his skin, he'd end up just like them. A broken and empty shell, welcoming death as a relief.

Maybe that's just what love is.

_11. First comes love, second comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage._ Neither Ramon, nor Gemma had ever set much stock by convention. Mateo Alexander Weasley was born only a year after the couple stopped denying the obvious and accepted the fact that they were perfect for each other. Though Ramon never planned to have children and Gemma could not even keep a plant alive, they fell deeply in love with their little boy. At around the same time, they both had the same idea. They could have any type of family they wanted.

And so, Christmases were warm and Birthdays were joyous occasions and Ramon worked hard to be available and Gemma worked hard to be consistent and they raised three happy, well-adjusted boys into men who always came home for Sunday dinner.

12. Sometimes Ramon wishes he'd mended things with his own broken family. He especially wishes that when he attends his father's funeral. He stands with Gemma and Mateo who is only two and uncomfortable in his clip on tie, his own tiny family and stares at the sprawling Weasley clan, leaning on each other and crying. Harry Potter, the uncle Ramon barely knows, removes his glasses and brings a heavily lined hand up to rub his eyes as he mourns the loss of yet another friend. His black hair is threaded with silver, but he stands tall and strong, his hand tight around his wife's. Their sons, James and Albus, stand next to them, a small, but close-knit family unit. And Ramon stands, tall and strong, his arm tight around Gemma as he seeks comfort in the only way he knows: in the only family he's ever had, tiny, but so very, very close.

And he is happy.

**ARGH! I'm sorry I keep editing and reposting! I should have proofread more carefully. Originally, Fred's middle name was Dominic, but I decided that was too close to Dominique, so I changed it to Ramon. But I left a few Dominics in by accident. Hence the edits. Once again, apologies. Does anyone have a vote on who they want to read about next?**


	9. Lucy Weasley

**This is the story of Lucy Weasley. Go easy on her; she's fragile. **

1. Lucy's name means "light," or something to that affect. This makes senses to Lucy, as she is the "light one" in a family of heavy.

As for her older sister, Molly's name means "sea of bitterness," or something like that. This makes sense to Lucy as well.

2. Lucy's parents are respectable people. Her father holds a high up job with the Ministry of Magic. He is and has always been, power hungry and proud to a certain extent. Lucy has always seen that in him, which is why she was not surprised by the story of his betrayal. Audrey is respectable as well. The house was always spotless, there was always something baking, the living rooms were not lived in, and dinner was always on the table at 6:35. Lucy always rather wondered if her mother would spend her entire life apologizing for being a muggle. Molly was different, decidedly so. Lucy always found her older sister to be a bit silly. Predictable, even. She was so very intent on casting off the chains of their perfect and perfectly respectable parents and in doing so, she made herself more like them than she could ever imagine.

Lucy was the light one, the quiet one, the sweet one, the fair one, the one who watched her family's self destruction and laughed.

3. Lucy never pretended to be anything but a Weasley. She enjoyed Holidays at the Burrow, played with Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron's children nearly every Saturday, hero-worshiped her older cousin Victoire, and when she arrived at Hogwarts, two years after her sister, she was sorted into Gryffindor, a feat she never regretted.

The Potter/Weasley family was grand. Why should she be ashamed of such a legacy?

4. All of the Potter/Weasley children were well-known at Hogwarts for obvious reasons. Molly and Lily were frightening; they were feared, Rose and Albus were sweet and kind to every one; they were appreciated. But only James Sirius Potter and Lucy Ginevra Weasley had that perfect combination of winning personality, good looks, fame, and easy, effortless charm. They were considered the height of cool. They were _popular_. It was rather strange. James never liked his Uncle Percy. He certainly didn't like his Aunt Audrey. He had no time for Molly, a feeling quite reciprocated, although she was his own age and they did play together as toddlers. James didn't even have time for his own sister. But he felt a certain connection with Lucy, the kind of connection that only the popular, loved, and revered can feel for one another. They were in an exclusive club and shared a bond they couldn't share with anyone in the rest of their family. James and Lucy heard about every party the moment it was thought of, they could laugh so hard they spit vanilla latte all over their desk in History of Magic and everyone would find it a great joke, they could treat people however they pleased and everyone accepted it and loved them all the more. During their years at Hogwarts, they could do no wrong.

They were popular because they could get away with anything and could get away with anything because they were popular.

5. Lucy hated going home over break. She liked her family fine. They were odd, not as cool as say, the Potters, but nice just the same. The house was always clean and smelled fairly nice. Molly kept to herself, so Lucy didn't have to worry about fights. She didn't fight with her parents. They didn't really care what she did. She was the good child, anyway; they only had to worry about Molly. Lucy had it all under control. Good grades, nice, reasonably attractive boyfriends etc etc. But Holidays at home were strange. They were just too quiet. Sterile, perhaps. No one spoke out of turn. Audrey asked how school was going. Lucy anwered fine. Percy asked how her grades were, already knowing the answer: good. Great. Straight O's naturally. Shoe in for Head Girl. Then they found Molly's stash or caught her slipping out her window to see Scorpius and Lucy was forgotten once again.

At home Lucy was never granted the attention she so desperately, quietly craved. She wasn't sure she even wanted it anymore.

6. There were many boys in Lucy Weasley's life, naturally. She was quite pretty after all, tall and slim, with long dark red hair and blue eyes. Added with her easy charm and boys clamored to go to Hogsmeade with her. She was really the only Weasley to gain that casual ease with the opposite sex. Lucy even dated James' best friend, Chuck for a semester or so. But there was one boy, one special boy, for whom Lucy, the pretty perfect Weasley could not do anything but pine. Lysander Scamander was a nice guy. He was two years older than Lucy. He wanted to teach History of Magic and make the subject interesting again. He cared about the environment and worried over the effects the muggle and magical worlds jointly had upon the world. He was not popular by any stretch of the imagination; on the contrary, he was much too cool for popularity. He wore his hair long, all the way to his shoulders and dark brown. His face was interesting, odd, but lovely and Lucy, with all her generic prettiness and flirty comments could not win him. She couldn't even try.

For the first time, she felt trapped by her own world. She felt trapped. She couldn't go after the only boy she would ever care anything for and she couldn't even tell him that she cared. She couldn't risk loving him. She couldn't risk the only stability, the only world she'd ever known for a boy who couldn't even ever love her back. He was _so_ good after all and she wasn't. She was shallow and scared of everything. So she never spoke to him, gazed blankly at him in the hallways, and continued with her charmed existence.

7. Lucy Weasley was chosen Head Girl her seventh year at school. That same year, Professor Binns finally retired and a new History of Magic professor was brought in. He was young and hip bringing fresh perspective to an old subject. Professor Scamander was just off two years in Africa working at a school/orphanage for magical orphans.

She had buried her feelings for Lysander deeply away. But still, seeing him walk in, smiling broadly at everyone, unable to say a mean word towards anyone, cracking jokes with that sly, sarcastic sense of humor that always so unnerved her. Lucy knew she would return to watching his every move from a distance and her stomach returned to its ever-constant state of churning and sickness that indicated the awfulness that is unrequited love.

8. Lucy hit a wall her seventh year of school. Nothing felt meaningful anymore. She was leaving school and she was self aware enough to realize that life would never be as easy again. Instead of enjoying her last few months of popularity and unfair advantages, Lucy began to lose her cool. Her friends were not truly her friends, she realized and as she began locking herself away, her friends began to shun her. She wrote a letter to James, begging for advice. He had nothing to tell her. His new life was merely a continuation of his old one, no responsibilities, partying with Chuck on the weekends. He laughed at her teary idealism. Lucy began visiting Molly and the baby in Hogsmeade some weekends and Molly, although she recognized the fragility of her sister's state for the very first time, was not able to help her sort through her tangled emotions. Lucy felt as though her life was a never-ending series of brick walls and she had no way out. She felt like shouting her terror of this feeling from the astronomy tower before leaping out of the window. She felt like screaming and running away, but she knew for a fact that she never would. She felt like praying, but she couldn't think of a god who didn't offend her. She felt bland. Bland and perfect and pretentious and cruel and sad and scared and so very young.

Lucy Weasley was very and truly lost.

9. Professor Scamander (she had so much trouble thinking of him in that manner) found her one day. She'd let the pressure get to her for a moment and she broke down in the empty charms classroom. She slid down the wall behind the stack of books that Professor Flitwick stood upon in order to be seen. She let the tears roll down her cheeks, let her thoughts run wild. Thoughts of leaving, thoughts of dying, thoughts of being someone new. She wanted to be anyone but herself. The popularity, the lovely popularity that had once been her doorway to the world now encompassed her existence, suffocating her and smothering her until she sank beneath. He found her by accident and looked so surprised to see her. "Oh, hello there." He said quietly. He sat down beside her. And she found herself unloading all of her awful thoughts, everything she'd ever felt about herself and her awful family who never listened to her, of James and the rest of the Gryffindors who knew only her pretty lies wrapped up in lovely paper. She told him that she loved someone, but could never tell him.

An unreadable expression was on his face as he listened to her. She felt silly for a moment. She never could tell if he was making fun of her or not and all of her problems must seem so silly to him, so trivial. He'd seen real problems, surely he must be judging her. And when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and let her cry into his chest, she'd never been more surprised and pleased.

10. Their relationship defied the normal, appropriate student/teacher relationship. He knew it. She knew it. They talked about everything. Her own insecurities seemed to melt away with his attention. He smiled at her and she felt as though she might be too happy to exist. Those she had once called friends saw them walking on the grounds and cruel rumors were started as to the nature of their friendship and for the first time, she didn't feel the need to do damage control. She was almost out anyway.

She was almost ready for the real world. She felt less shallow, and less dependent upon what others thought of her. Unfortunately it was a trade off for she was entirely dependent upon Lysander.

11. After graduation, Lysander kissed her forehead in the privacy of his office. She beamed up at him, told him of her plans to travel for a bit. She would start in Budapest… she'd always wanted to see Budapest. She saw something strange flicker across his expression.

She promised to write every day and he promised the same. He would miss her, he noted seriously, and she felt as though her heart might burst. She owed him so much; she could almost forget how she used to love him.

12. Lucy returned two years later, wiser and with that certain maturity and depth she'd never lacked, but that had been just hidden below the surface. She grew into her sense of humor, grew out of her cruel streak. She went to Hogwarts first. There hadn't been a single day of her journey in which she had not spoken to her former classmate/professor, and she was so eager to see him.

It was a surprise, her return. His expression was worth every second of her journey. She vaulted herself at him and he caught her like he'd been catching her every day since she was seventeen. And Lucy Weasley got what she'd once thought she'd had, but had really always been desperately hunting. Acceptance. True, never-changing acceptance. And she was happy.


	10. Lysander Scamander

Lysander Scamander grew up with the entire world as his personal playpen. His mother, Luna Lovegood was somewhat wild. Or perhaps wild is the wrong word to describe her unique eccentricities. She was somewhat batty with an insatiable thirst for adventure and a unique curiosity for all life forms. A respected naturalist, philanthropist, and world traveler, she took no time whatsoever for maternity leave and as soon as was safe, took Lysander and his twin brother, Lorcan, with her on her quest to see the rest of the world. They spent one summer in Budapest searching for the Leek-Handled Zieemba before leaving for Bangkok to build houses for those ravaged by a devastating flood. They spent one Christmas in London visiting their grandfather and another in Godric's Hollow with the Potters. They were welcome at these places more often than just Christmas, but Luna had a wandering spirit and staying in one place was simply not an option for too long. Their travels were certainly for the best. Luna took the Daily Prophet as a way of staying connected with home and Lysander read it religiously for reasons he couldn't quite explain. The Prophet was ruthless when it came to gossip. They followed around war hero's children from the Second War photographing their every move when they weren't at Hogwarts. They looked beaten, he noticed, every one of them. Not one seemed to enjoy the _constant_, **never-ending** attention.

Lysander could not imagine growing up under the scrutiny that the Potter/Weasley kids had endured every day since birth.

Lysander was quite close to his mother, but he never had the pleasure of meeting his father. This fact never really bothered him, for, unlike his brother, he had a perfectly adequate relationship with his mother. Lorcan, his twin, rebelled (against what, Lysander was never quite sure), so Lysander stepped up at a very young age to be the man of the family. Someone had to be responsible and his mother, much as she might love her sons, wasn't really a fit parent. Someone had to make sure there was enough food even when they lived in a hut in Barbados (five years old), an igloo (nine years old), and even a brief stint with Blaise Zabini in his mansion in St Andrews (ten and a half). Lysander never let on how the responsibility strained him and he never let on the weights resting on his shoulders. Only when he and Lorcan were spending their annual two weeks in the summers with Ron and Hermione Weasley, two worry free weeks of stability and home comforts like beds and regular hot meals, did Lysander allow himself to relax.

Lysander knew that Hermione knew that all was not well and Hermione knew that Lysander knew and Lysander knew that Hermione knew that Lysander knew, but all this mutual knowledge was kept silent out of loyalty to Luna whom they both dearly loved.

Hogwarts was bliss for Lysander. A bed of his very own, a place to put down roots, somewhere to spend more than one Christmas in a row, a spot to which he might grow attached. He never wanted to leave. Surprisingly, his favorite class was History of Magic, the class no one really liked. But while Lysander was good at Transfiguration, great at Potions, and excellent at Charms, he loved history most of all. He loved knowing where he was coming from; it gave him the stability to plan for the future. There was nothing Lysander appreciated more than stability. But while Hogwarts was a dream, Lysander found that he missed his mother. She was terrible for answering letters, never remembered birthdays, and once, in Lysander and Lorcan's Fourth Year, she forgot to fetch them from King's Cross Station.

They went home with Hermione and Ron and Lysander pretended it was all a great joke as the final bit of child in him died.

Lysander's unusual upbringing instilled in him a strange, unshakeable calm, and a cool impossible to describe. He got along with everyone from the House Elves to McGonagall, but he couldn't really be called charming. Rather, he was interested. Interested in everything from the origins of McGonagall's tartan (it could be traced back to the old clans from which she was descended), to the House Elf Winky's tattered hat (a gift from a very old, very dear friend), Lysander truly enjoyed the stories he was told, the personal histories and those around him picked up on this and responded to it accordingly. He felt a deep connection to the school and the stories the castle itself could tell. It was his ambition to return to the school as soon as he could, as soon as McGonagall would hire him.

He spent his time between school and teaching in Egypt, doing freelance cursebreaking for Gringotts, before returning to school two years after graduation, with a feeling that could only be described as relief.

Given his circumstances, Lysander was well accustomed to surprises. In fact, after a certain point, nothing really surprised him at all. He could almost always anticipate people's reactions and in special circumstances, the situations in which he would find himself. It was an ability uncannily reminiscent of the old Divination, a subject, he was told, in which Hogwarts even used to teach a class. Of course, Lysander, like all of his generation, found the science behind the Divine to be bunk, and considered Divination little more than guesswork, and simple-minded guesswork at that. Still, Lysander's ability to read people was extremely sensitive to say the least. However, he never read anyone as wrongly as he read Lucy Weasley. Although he was two years ahead of her at Hogwarts, he'd thought he'd known her fairly well. They'd spent many holidays together, and she always spent time at Hermione's whilst he and Lorcan visited. And Lysander, who tried his best not to pass judgment on anyone, found himself passing a verdict on her. She was quite pretty, and seemed content to bask in and rely upon that fleeting prettiness, her circle of shallow friends, and her temporary popularity at Hogwarts. Still, he was kind to her, like was to everyone, for Lysander was of the opinion that he had no right to be rude or cruel towards anyone. It wasn't his place, and it was a waste of time and energy. She did try his patience, however, with her vacant, cooler-than-thou glares and her icy one-liners.

Finding Lucy Weasley, in a crumpled heap in the empty charms classroom, blathering on about the futility of her own life and other such Nihilistic ideas, was the biggest shock of Lysander's life (and that is saying something).

To this day, Lysander is not quite sure when it was that he fell in love with Lucy. It wasn't something he'd planned, certainly wasn't something he'd expected, but being the son of Luna Lovegood, Lysander has always known that the things you don't see coming can be the most lasting and incredible, so he never really questioned it. It did, however, bother him a great deal that he was completely mad for his student, however mature, otherworldly, and absurdly wise said student might be. Still, he promised himself when he came to the startling realization that the friendship built upon long talks in his office and walks over the grounds and late night snacks in the kitchens, had turned into something much more, that he wouldn't say anything, wouldn't do anything until after graduation. He wasn't even sure Lucy felt the same way. She was young and bright and surely didn't want to be saddled down with a dull history teacher. She enjoyed his company, sure, but she'd been searching for a lifeline and he'd offered her one. She would have latched onto anyone.

His suspicions were confirmed when Lucy informed him, just before graduation, that he had inspired her, that she would be leaving to travel the world, and that she had no idea when she would return. Lysander had a hard time catching his breath as he recalled his mother saying nearly the same words every day of his childhood. He should have known better than to hope she could ever want the stability that he needed. He was certain that he would never see Lucy Weasley again.

However, Lucy never failed to shock him. Mere days after her departure, he received an owl from Budapest describing the incredible things she was seeing and feeling and experiencing. Reading her words was like being there with her, and he had a hard time catching his breath again, for a different reason this time. He lectured himself for hoping again, assuring himself that the letters would taper off, just like his mother's. He shouldn't hope to hear from her again. But every single day, without fail, he received an owl, sometimes long and flowery, sometimes as short as a 'miss you' scrawled on the back of a paper napkin. And he replied, keeping her up-to-date on the Weasley family (who, he quickly gathered, had little to no contact with Lucy), as well as the daily-goings-on of Hogwarts.

He'd thought she might grow bored with his anecdotes, stories of House Elves named Winky and the origins of McGonagall's tartan, but if she did, she never let on. Instead, she wrote back with questions of the utmost fascination, and Lysander found he never grew tired of hearing her odd and often wise and illuminating opinions on every subject.

Still, even after all the letters, Lysander doubted. He doubted Lucy would return anytime soon, doubted she would want to see him when she did, and doubted she would ever want _him_. Lysander, in all his calm, and his cool, and his unwavering self-confidence, was confused and conflicted, and hopelessly in love with the mad little Weasley girl he'd never particularly liked. So, he did the only thing he could do. He threw himself into his teaching and found that he quickly amassed quite the rapt audience, once he assured everyone that he would retire long before dying and certainly wouldn't continue teaching the class as a ghost. He took a step back from Goblin Wars (although they were important) to discuss Wizarding, Muggleborn, and Magical Creature rights over the recent centuries. It was a fascinating and time appropriate topic. He even had Hermione Weasley, a lobbyist in Magical Law, come to speak to his Sixth and Seventh Years, and he thought they'd really gotten through to them.

One boy even asked if anyone had tried to free the Hogwarts House Elves. Lysander thought Hermione might cry.

Seeing Lucy again was like seeing the sunshine after a long rainstorm. It was late March when she finally walked into his office, closing the door behind her quietly and leaning against it while she waited for him to notice her. He looked up from the book in which he was engrossed and found he couldn't breathe once again (this was becoming an unfortunate habit when she was around). She was there, standing in front of him, leaning against his door, with a lovely tan and a smirk playing about her wide mouth. Her big, blue eyes sparkled in a way they never did when she was still in school, and her expression was no longer flat, but vibrant. Lysander was proud of her and in awe of her and in love with her all at once. He stood slowly while really wanting to leap to his feet. He wanted run to her, to scoop her up tight and never let her go. But he made himself smile (or rather, beam, for his self-control did have limits) and stand still, just soaking her in like a parched man. She stared at him and he stared at her. He opened his mouth to speak, though he had no idea what he wanted to say (I love _you_, I _love_ you, _I love you_), but she stopped him by surprising him once again and running toward him with blazing determination. She vaulted herself into his arms and he caught her.

And then her lips were on his and he felt like a superhero, he felt like he could take on the world if she would only kiss him like this every day for the rest of their lives.

When his feet finally touched the ground again (for he was quite certain he'd floated up somewhere much higher than he'd ever been), and he finally let them both up for air, and she finally slithered down in his arms till her feet actually did touch the floor, he tugged them both down to sit on his thick Turkish rug, him with his back to the wall beside the tall oak bookshelf, and her facing him with her legs wrapped tight around him, her face just far enough from his to stare into his eyes like they were memorizing every shade and colour in them. 'Missed you,' was all she said, almost shyly which made him want to laugh just to see her flush. She was the furthest thing from shy around everyone but him and he found if not charming than at least endearing. Still, he couldn't help saying, 'I could tell,' just to see her mock anger, her blushing face, and the way her eyes lit up affectionately. Twirling a strand of her hair around his finger, he asked 'how long?' She just shook her head and buried her face in his chest mumbling something indiscernible. At his query, she lifted her face and said quietly, 'too long,' before confirming that she'd loved him ever since their Hogwarts days together when they were both in school. Lysander had hardly dared to hope for that much. He'd hardly dared to hope at all. Even in his bliss, he wondered if it was all too good to be true, if she was going away again. He didn't ask, couldn't ask, how long she was staying. Living with his mother had taught him that much. But she was speaking again, before he had time to worry or fret any further. 'I enjoyed travelling, but it's good to be home,' she was saying, gazing around his familiar office. I'm going to see my parents after this.'

And he felt a swooping his gut when he realized that he was not just on her list of people to see, not just her owl buddy and willing correspondent, but the very first person she'd wanted to see. He was her home.

Lucy put her flowery descriptions and brilliant writing skills to good use and, compiling her letters to Lysander and diary entries, she wrote her first book, a memoir about growing up with the Potter/Weasley family from her flat in Hogsmeade. It was published before her twentieth birthday. That was just the start of an illustrious career, or rather, two illustrious careers in which Lysander researched and Lucy wrote. They interviewed their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, about their experiences in the war and wrote the preemptive and only Potter-sanctioned book on the Second War. They researched and wrote a history of House Elf rights (and lack thereof) culminating in a philosophical essay on the ethics of the enslavement of fellow sentient beings. The book became a surprising bestseller, though that was perhaps due to their names on the cover. Still, the book was widely read and spent seventeen months on the Daily Prophet bestseller list.

It proved to be a catalyst in the fight for Elfish welfare for four years later new legislature was passed illegalizing the utilization of an elf without proper registration. Six years after that, a minimum wage was put into place, and two years after that an Elf was appointed as a representative on the Council of Magical Creatures.

Over the next ten years after her first book, Lucy and Lysander published seven more works of nonfiction. After that, Lucy turned to writing novels and Lysander continued to teach History of Magic. Three years later, Lucy deemed it appropriate to begin writing a children's book series in honour of their first child, a girl called Lora.

While Luna did arrive ten minutes late to Lora's christening, all that Lysander remembered about the day was that she arrived.


End file.
